The Riches of
My love for boutiques full of character and charm grew out of jaunts to Vermont country stores with my mom when I was a girl. I really like poking around places that have a soul, all of which seem to have a story that I seek to tell. This is largely the focus of my books “The Riches of Paris” and “The Riches of France.” This same concept can be applied to just about any place in the world. Here I’ll be reporting on establishments that fit The Riches of criteria. I hope you’ll have a chance to visit them both online and in person during your travels.
Bounty Hunter: Purveyors of Supremely-Made Fashions from Near and Far
Ann McClelland and Her Friend in a Telluride Institution
“My goal has been to offer clothing and accessories for people of discerning taste,” says Ann McClelland, owner of Bounty Hunter, a one-of-a-kind Telluride store that enjoys a devoted following of locals and visitors alike. “We offer a high country look that is not location specific,” Ann adds. Indeed a buttery leather jacket from Bounty Hunter is as wearable here as in New York City.
Ann has curated a collection of fashions and accessories of superior quality and styling for this quaint boutique that she acquired eight years ago. Whatever you buy here, you can be sure you’ll walk away with a fine piece of craftsmanship that you’ll treasure for years. Her men’s and women’s shearlings and leathers originate from Italy where gentle tanning processes are used to create the world’s softest leathers. The lines on these fashions are as clean and elegant as those of the boiled cashmere and angora coats from Austria that also hang in Ann’s shop.
America—particularly the West and The Southwest—is well represented here, too. Ann’s son-in-law, Nate Funmaker, is the only Native American master hat maker in the world and she’s proud to feature his exquisite works at Bounty Hunter. Nate handcrafts each hat, carefully plying 38 to 43 layers of beaver fur (or beaver and rabbit blend) together and then hand shapes this material over a boiler.
Five different grits of sandpaper are employed to finish it off, resulting in a hat that boasts a luxurious sheen and is also highly waterproof.
Bounty Hunter’s western boots and mules turn eyes as well. You can buy these Texas-made beauties off the shelf or custom order them according to your choice of toe, heel, style, color and skin. The latter might be the toughest to decide upon since you’ll have to deliberate between a great variety including bison, alligator, lizard, stingray, sueded hippo, and bullfrog, to name a few.
The same delightful conundrum might be posed for the hand-tooled belts, also made in El Paso, that you’ll want to adorn with one of the weighty sterling silver buckles sold here as well. Artisanally-made hunting knives and stone-encrusted hat bands, most of which have been made within the Four Corners area, round out Ann’s selection of heirloom-quality collectors’ items—all sure to command a high bounty in America and beyond.
The above piece was first published in Telluride Style magazine.
